From previous thread:
Watching Mike Pence, hand-picked by Paul Manafort and head of Trump’s transition team along with traitor Michael Flynn, swearing in the Senators by asking them to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic” is a bit surreal.

@Jerzy Russian: Ryan won’t be there. Don Young, as the longest serving member of the House in either party, will be swearing her in as Speaker. He’s a complete crank and bugfuck nuts, so there is not telling what he might say or do.

I’m so excited for this new Congress. So many WOC. So many bright, capable women. So many flipped seats. It’s terribly exciting. Oh, just saw the answers. Yes, staying at the same place, Green Tortoise. I didn’t do enough exploring of the area and it’s a good walking distance from the convention center.

@Punchy: well, the crazies are out. I keep my FB circle very small so I don’t run into much crazy shit in my circle. But a friend shared one of my Pelosi posts this AM. A friend of his responded that Pelosi will be indicted within 6 months and sent to Gitmo. Apparently, this guy saw something on YouTube that an indictment is coming down on Pelosi for “her part” in various murders in sanctuary cities. My head hurts. Looked at this guy’s FB profile… He loves him some Bernie. (and John Hartford, the musician). Did I say that my head hurts?

@Quinerly: Today before I realized what I was doing, I replied to a friend’s *public* Facebook post, which was about the climate committee and began with the words “Goddamn Pelosi.” I am probably going to regret it very much.

@Hob: I replied to a (former) friend’s public post that was also castigating Pelosi. My comment noted that she (my friend) had learned absolutely nothing from the 2016 fiasco. She deleted my comment. She’s a Berner through and through.

@donnah: I’m getting very emotional myself. I tend to do this, though. Embarrassed a friend I was visiting in DC on the Capitol tour shortly after Pelosi was sworn in the first go around. I teared up outside Pelosi’s office on the tour.

@dmsilev: Rather than Seth Mouton (sp? I’m lazy) I would much prefer Paul Ryan and the heads of the crazy caucus carrying the litter, each accompanied by a Dem with a spiked cudgel to prevent “accidents.”

@trollhattan: There’s a lot of love for deceased musician John Hartford here in St. Louis. I know a few riverboat captains… This is the first whack job Hartford fan I have run into. Very disconcerting. He looks to be a retired towboat guy from his FB profile. He’s ranting and raving on my poor friend’s thread as I type.

Wikipedia about Anthony Brindisi, who proudly voted for Joe Biden: he’s from upstate NYS; his district went for Trump by like 19 points, but he ousted the GOP congresscritter.

Anthony Joseph Brindisi (born November 22, 1978) is an American politician, attorney, and Democratic New York State Assembly member from Utica, New York who represents New York’s 119th Assembly District. Prior to his election to the Assembly in 2011, Brindisi served on the Utica School Board and practiced as an attorney.[2] Brindisi is the member of the US House of Representatives from New York’s 22nd congressional district, having defeated Republican incumbent Claudia Tenney in the 2018 midterm elections.

Cooper just voted “present.” Think that’s a dude from Tennessee?

Crow for Tammy Duckworth. Think that’s the new guy from Colorado? The vet? Oh well, a Democrat.

@chris:
Canadian political humour:
Q: How many leftist Saskatchewan farmers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Two–one to change it and another to point out that they wouldn’t need to if the NDP were in power.

NASHVILLE—Two abortions. Maybe three, if you count the one he pressured a girlfriend—who happened to be his patient—to get. Pulling out a gun during an argument with his first wife. Prescribing pills to another patient while they dated. Getting reprimanded by the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners for dallying with patients, an ethics violation.

Voters in Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District had plenty of reasons not to vote for incumbent Scott DesJarlais last week. The Tea Party Republican might have snuck under the radar to win a first term in 2010 and held back an onslaught of negative publicity long enough to capture a second one in 2012, but a third time? When conservative voters in this district, which stretches from the edges of Chattanooga to Nashville, went to the polls, they were widely expected to run off a pro-life, family-values conservative who had shown in divorce court that he could bend those beliefs in his own life.

Now looking up this “Boutros” that the too impressed with themselves Democrats are voting for … is it Dems?

@Hob: I replied to a (former) friend’s public post that was also castigating Pelosi. My comment noted that she (my friend) had learned absolutely nothing from the 2016 fiasco. She deleted my comment. She’s a Berner through and through.

A couple of us alluded to this in the last thread about how Our Progressive Betters are as much the cause of pushing thru a Repub agenda as the Repubs are themselves.

Another example of the Horseshoe Theory of Politics: Our Progressive Betters are, on most days, electorally indistinguishable from your average wingnut.

Wikipedia on Cheri Bustos, whom the No Pelosi coalition are supporting. (And did Bustos vote for Bustos?)

Cheryl Lea Bustos (née Callahan; born October 17, 1961) is an American journalist, healthcare executive, and politician who has served as the U.S. Representative for Illinois’s 17th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Bustos is the first woman elected to Congress from her district.

Previously elected to the East Moline City Council in 2007, she defeated Republican incumbent Bobby Schilling in the 2012 congressional election and a subsequent 2014 rematch. Assigned to the House Committee on Agriculture and Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, she represents a northwest Illinois constituency anchored by the Quad Cities, Peoria, and Rockford. As of the 2016 elections, Bustos and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin are the only Democrats in the Illinois Congressional Delegation who are not from the Chicago area.

I enjoy hearing all these Pelosi votes.

I wonder if Abigail Spanberger will just go with “present.” Meanwhile, Dave Brat, from his office at scenic Liberty University. May be watching, may not be. Who cares?

The Trump supporters are taking this new turn terribly. I was just looking at one of my FB groups – Friends of Dead & Company and the Trumpies are having apoplexy. Normally one would thing they would stfu at this auspicious moment but no, they are shitting on every thread and I’ve seen 2 different threads get pulled because of the morons posting in about 10 minutes. Damn. Stupid MoFos.

@opiejeanne: Yes. They expected the Democratic Caucus to split over Pelosi, leaving McCarthy as the only viable option for Speaker. Even had the Democratic Caucus actually done this, or even if they were doing it as the vote is ongoing, the Republicans in the House would never get enough Democratic defections for McCarthy to become Speaker. The Democratic Caucus would have just kept voting until someone decided to compromise.

@Adam L Silverman: They really don’t inhabit our reality, do they? It will be interesting to see what happens to RWNJ minds when reality increasingly impinges on their bubble. And by interesting, I mean “appalling”.

@Marcopolo: The apology by Davidson and the appearance of Crenshaw on SNL was the weekend after the election, when Crenshaw was Congressman-elect. That might be what you were thinking of.

The original mocking pissed me off so much because I knew it was the kind of thing that would bring out voters for Crenshaw. I still don’t think it put him over the top but I do think it possibly gained him a few points.

Trump loving Dead Heads? I’m having problems processing this information. I know of many Bernie hold outs. But Trumpers…..WTF?

@Quinerly: I lived in Santa Cruz for almost a decade, met a crapload of Deadheads there, and the vast majority of them, had they cut their hair and put on suits, would have been perfectly suited for today’s GOP. Women were sex objects, blacks and POC weren’t allowed near them, and the world owed them a lot of money. And indeed, a lot of those guys proved after the fact to have been pretty good at making money.

@CaseyL: Definite horseshoe theory in action. And they’ve been ramping shit up since after we flipped so many seats last election. They are going to be a PROBLEM 2019 – 2020, so I suggest folks get used to having to slap them down and maybe even getting defriended.

@The Moar You Know: different set of Dead Heads from my circle. The ones here are mostly off the grid types (and I’m not talking electrical grid), don’t own a suit or a pair of decent shoes. 90% were Bernie supporters. I guess the Midwest is different. 😈

Just watched my shitty new rep (new to me because I moved, not new to the House) vote for McCarthy. He’s one of those gubmint-hatin’ politicians who has been an elected official since 1980. The ads would write themselves — just show old photos of the shit-stain in the Florida Statehouse in his Members Only jacket. Maybe I can talk my husband into running against him! :)

@different-church-lady: Sounded like it was coming from the Republican side. I think, despite them running her down, that they were hoping she’d revolt and give them control of the chamber or something. They’re not the sharpest knives in the plastic chopstick drawer.

EXCLUSIVE
Justice Dept. is investigating whether Zinke lied to his agency’s inspector general

Ryan Zinke resigned as President Trump’s interior secretary amid ethics probes. Investigators came to believe Zinke lied to them and referred the matter to the Justice Department, which has not yet decided whether to press charges.

@Marcopolo: 29-192-18-3. The rumblings on the Democratic side were expected but ultimately were campaign promises kept. As long as they’re going to work with her as Speaker then I don’t give a shit about their vote now.

But yeah there is still some division on the Republican side. Could be very entertaining to watch Nancy thread a few bipartisan needles.

@Yutsano: Honestly speaking, we should all know by now that Pelosi can count votes. You have to believe she has met w/ all the Freshmen & made it a point to let the ones who made campaign promises not to vote for her keep that promise.

The paygo vote will be interesting to see. I can actually argue either side of that position.

@Elizabelle: Of course he lied to them. The reason he was denied an O6 (Navy captain’s) command and then run out of the Naval Special Warfare community is because he pulled all sorts of financial and other shenanigans and then lied to both his chain of command and NCIS about it. That’s what made him available to run for Congress to begin with. He’s a shitbird. He’s always been a shitbird. He will always be a shitbird.

@Yarrow: I was glad to see Litton actually have TV ads, but Crenshaw had some really bad positions (privatizing SS) that I think should have made it into some of Litton’s TV ads. Fletcher was a lot more aggressive going after Culberson don’t you think? I hope that is the lesson learned for Democrats in the Houston area going forward.

Nicely orchestrated vote – all the anti-Nancy votes spread around so nobody got more than four. She’s a sharp mover. Love the committee to escort her in is half the Congress, and reading off all the names of the CA delegation must have given Republicans agita.

Longtime Ald. Edward Burke, one of Chicago’s most powerful figures and a vestige of the city’s old Democratic machine, has been charged with attempted extortion for allegedly using his position as alderman to corruptly solicit business for his private law firm.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story indicated Burke had already turned himself in. He is expected to do so Thursday afternoon.

The 37-page criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court comes five weeks after the FBI carried out a stunning raid on Burke’s City Hall office, working for hours behind windows covered with brown butcher paper before leaving down a back staircase with computers and files.

According to the one count, Burke in 2017 tried to extort a company that owns fast-food restaurants in the Chicago area and needed help with permits for a remodeling job.

The evidence includes numerous recorded calls from Burke’s cell phone as well as emails and other documents, according to the complaint, which was filed Wednesday and unsealed Thursday.

The complaint also alleged Burke illegally solicited a campaign donation from an executive with the restaurant company for another politician, who is not named in the charges.

Nancy can smash McCarthy’s comment about Republicans always voting for personal freedom over government control. Use it to take their government restrictions on voting away, so that more Americans can have personal freedom.

@rikyrah: Well, maybe not so much of a thunderbolt after that day a month or two ago when the FBI went into his office, threw everybody out, locked the door and covered all the windows with butcher’s paper. That wasn’t a social call.

@Punchy: But the Dems who voted present where actually helping her. The present votes simply lower the majority threshold she needed. Because they voted present, she only needed 214 to get elected as Speaker.

The Republicans are lucky they could bring their kids – otherwise it would be an even more stark contrast between the sea of mostly old white guys in dark suits against the rainbow of women and POC in bright clothing.

Also too, given Kevin McCarthy’s exceedingly limited mental capacity it’s weird seeing his name and “smartphone” in the same sentence. It might be more accurate to have written that McCarthy was reading from his electronic device that can make phone calls and accomplish other tasks.

@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, good to remember that the initial “Pelosi protest letter” had 16 signatories & did not include all the folks who “had issues” with voting for her. Losing only 15 votes seems pretty good to me.

@Yarrow: Sshhh…let the nonna have her fun. Call me crazy but I get the feeling she’s been waiting to get that gavel back for a long time. And after she gives the new kids master classes in how power works, she can go back to San Francisco/Baltimore happily retired and ready for the great grandkids.

So I gotta head off but want to leave y’all with this wonder clip of AOC dancing/goofing off in high school (she is parodying Ally Sheedy’s character in the Breakfast Club.

Some right wing idiots think it makes her look bad for some reason. Probably because they do not understand actual human emotions. Anyways, AOC’s exuberance in the clip is how I feel about Pelosi taking the gavel.

@MazeDancer: Also, Ben Franklin and the rest of the founders and framers weren’t concerned with freedom, what they wanted to ensure was, to use their own terminology, “ordered liberty”. There is a difference between liberty and freedom to begin with. And there is certainly a major difference between ordered liberty and freedom. The founders and framers were actually scared of freedom as they equated it with an almost anarchic quality.

@Elizabelle: Yeah, NY-22 is quite purple — Brindisi squeaked out a win against Tenney, but it was less due to Brindisi’s campaigning than to the fact that even a lot of Republicans around here really couldn’t stand her and probably just left the Rep slot blank or voted for some wacky third-party candidate. She was a very, very unappealing politician with absolutely 0 charm, even if you agreed with her positions. She spent most of the campaign tying to characterize Brindisi as a supine lackey of the feared Cuomo-Pelosi socialist Cthulu-beast. Not surprised that he’s styling himself out of the gate as an “independent Democrat.” We shouldn’t be piling on otherwise good Democrats for sometimes staking out positions that play better in their home districts than they might in Boston or San Francisco, if that’s what gets them re-elected. Brindisi is a perfectly solid Democrat.

The Twitter machine tells me that my Congressman, Jim Langevin, has been picked as the first speaker pro tem. Except I don’t know what that is or does. But it highlights accessibility, as Langevin is a quadriplegic.

@Gin & Tonic: They sit in the chair and move the business of the speaker when the spaker isn’t at the podium. It’s a big deal as he is the first quadrapaliegic to be elected, and the podium area has been made ada compliant.

Thanks so much for the link. We cut cable awhile ago so cspan is a distant memory.
Anyone else tear up when she called the children to accompany her at the podium for the swearing in? Not sure I understand why, but I did.

@HeleninEire: There is actually no disrespect. Once the 115th Congress adjourned in December, barring it being called back into emergency session, he was functionally no longer a member of Congress. At noon today he was officially no longer a member of Congress. So there was no reason, nor need for him to be there.

@Elizabelle: It won’t. McConnell made it clear this morning he will bring no legislation to the floor of the Senate in the 116th Congress unless the President has stated clearly he’ll sign it into law. And since the President told everyone three weeks ago that he’d sign the CR and then reneged on that promise, Senator McConnell will bring no legislation to the floor at all in the 116th Congress.

The Speaker Pro Tempore, meaning “temporary speaker”, is a legislative office on the federal and state levels. The Speaker Pro Tempore of the House of Representives is selected by the majority party caucus. The duties of this office are primarily to fill the role of presiding officer of the House in the absence of the Speaker of the House. The Speaker Pro Tempore is of the majority party leadership team by tradition.

@BeautifulPlumage: @Elizabelle: He wasn’t on the roil call. I’m guessing he already got the word to not bother. It’s not even certified in North Carolina yet so the credentials haven’t made it to the House. And last I heard the new board hadn’t been reconvened yet. So that might not get resolved for a while yet.

@Yutsano: Steny Hoyer already said the D majority would not seat Harris as they consider it a fraudulent election. Here’s a guess as to how this plays out:

1) The NC State Board of Elections was dissolved last week by a 3 judge panel (because of lawsuits over whether the R NC lege had the authority to strip NCSBOE appointment powers from the D Gov). So right now there is currently no NCSBOE official to sit in on the evidentiary hearings regarding NC 9 election fraud that are scheduled to take place next week.

2) A new NCSBOE is in the process of being appointed. It will have 5 members. The Gov gets 3 appointees, the opposition party 2. Gov Cooper said he is appointing his three folks this week. So then there will be NCSBOE folks available to hear the evidence of fraud presented next week. Depending on what is presented, the NCSBOE normally would have the power to call for a new election. However the Rs have said they will refuse to appoint anyone to the NCSBOE and since you need 4 votes to call for a new election, the 3 member board won’t be able to do that. But they will have the evidence from the hearing.

3) They can pass that evidence onto the US House of Reps or the House can ask them to send the evidence to them and then the House can call for a new election in NC-9. That is the most likely outcome–who knows how long it will take for that process to play out.

4) There will be various court challenges to all of this from the Rs who are demanding Harris be seated now but it is unlikely they will prevail.

@Marcopolo: And the NC GOP whackmouths are trying to complain that Democrats are cheating the process. And setting up the Board of Election is kind of complicated, since the rightwing state legislature tries to bigfoot everything. At the moment, it’s set for January 31. Lege did not expect to have a contested seat that needs attention, right away.

@Yutsano: Was reading up on the Mark Harris stuff in NC, and the NC Republicans are still going scorched earth. Hope this blows back terribly on them.

The original State Board of Elections has been dissolved. The Democratic Governor, Roy Cooper, has the power to appoint 3 new members, with the GOP choosing another two.

To which the GOP fuckers say: we won’t appoint ANY. Trying to make it look like it’s a Dem power grab. Mind you, after they are the fuckers who cheated to win the office.

A new board will be formed on Jan. 31 under legislation passed last month.

Gov. Roy Cooper (D) initially announced plans to constitute an interim board in the meantime. The governor has the power to appoint all five of the board’s members, with three from a list provided by his party and two from the opposing party.

But Cooper backed away from that move Wednesday after state Republicans said they would not participate in naming new members — which would have left the panel as an all-Democratic board, giving the GOP an opening to dismiss its findings as partisan.

“Quickly rooting out real election fraud should be a bipartisan effort,” Cooper said in the statement. “Today in North Carolina, we have a Board of Elections with five empty chairs because Republicans are blocking the way.”

North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes said in a statement that the party’s unwillingness to support an interim board “results from a desire to ensure that any future investigation surrounding the Ninth Congressional District election is open, fair, and transparent, and not tainted by actions taken by an illegal board.”

This makes me want to slap Robin Hayes. Hard.

It would be my preference that, rather than a new election (with low turnout, most likely) they award the Congressional seat to the Democrat who was narrowly defeated, 905 votes, likely by fraud.

Not a new election. Award the seat to the candidate who. did. not. cheat. Don’t give the GOP a do-over, with a fresh Republican. Who gets a fresh start, and a low turnout election.

Someone needs to smack these criminals around. I would like to see fraud participants go to jail, and face whacking fines, too.

@Adam L Silverman: We have really got to codify, on both federal and state levels, a clear and simple procedure for holding new elections when there is evidence of fraud, vote-tampering, foreign interference, etc. Hell, considering Florida, there should be new elections any time a manual recount is botched. Our system of blithely allowing politicians whose elections are of questionable legitimacy to continue to serve is not particularly sustainable.

@Miss Bianca: Dead thread now, but wait, why the fuck would someone vote for a sitting Senator for Speaker of the House? What am I missing there? I get that some might not want to vote for Pelosi, but a Senator? What’s the point they’re trying to make?

@Elizabelle: What the NC GOP wants to avoid is a full and proper investigation that brings all the facts into the light of day. The reason for that is that such an investigation will show that the NC GOP used this and other absentee ballot fraudster’s services widely. Even against other Republicans as this guy apparently was utilized the Republican incumbent in that district in the primary. He’s worked for the sheriff in one of the counties in that district as well. And, I’m fairly certain, if a proper investigation is done, that it will disclose that this guy was either running or tied into a statewide network of people doing this same type of absentee ballot fraud on behalf of the NC GOP and its preferred candidates all across the state. I’m guessing it will also tie into the NC GOP legal operative who Senator Tim Scott blocked from a Federal court judgeship last December. It will also raise uncomfortable questions about the US Attorney as Pastor Harris’s son works as an Assistant US Attorney in the US Attorney’s Office that appears to have buried the complaints and quashed a Federal investigation into what was going on. Robin Hayes and Dallas Woodhouse are trying to save their own butts, as well as those of dozens of other North Carolina GOP elected and appointed officials.

Yeah, I know, but the modern concept of pirates as bloodthirsty murdering thieves relates to my picture of modern Republicans pretty well. Lots of modern concepts of many things don’t relate to actual history very well.